Neil Young - Homegrown (June 19, 2020, at long last)

neil, prince and dylan, sure, but is that actually true of springsteen? i remember thinking, the first time i heard "tracks," that springsteen had an amazing ear for his own work and instinctively understood what to keep and what to discard. i still can't think of a single track on "tracks" that i wish he had included on one of his studio albums.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is mostly otm but I do think there is a FAR better version of the River that can be made on a playlist with the alt tracks from the boxset than the original

"Florida" sounds like a lost SYR series mid-90's collaboration with Sonic Youth

each time it played last night I said, out loud, "what the fuck, Neil?"

"florida" really is a strange fucking story!

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

It's such an odd feeling, listening to an album that feels like it should be familiar but isn't

yo i have the LP in my hands !!!!!

Nice! Assuming pressing is good, Neil's stuff usually is

yeah it's dead quiet and sounds great

When I first heard “Florida” I immediately thought : “This is his ‘The Gift’ “

i feel as if it's more like his "apes-ma"

Homegrown you must be a Pink Floyd album because you RULE

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_089

iconic url imo

Don't really keep up with neil news but had a bit of a binge of his albums this weekend apropos of nothing and now I'm blessed with this today.

Separate Ways is the best track here imo

Florida reminds me of some of Jandek's spoken word stuff

this is really good but now I understand better Neil's observation about the middle of the road and heading for the ditch instead. well, except for "Florida".

Hi my name is Jordan and I'm listening to my first Neil Young and Bob Dylan albums today.

Ever !?!?! I mean, you could do worse than these new ones, but ...

whoa Jordan

whoa

Jordan also turning 12 today

lmao jordan!!!

lol I can see how someone who plays drums for a living would never have spent much time with those artists, enjoy!

lol fair enough, outside of the Most Famous Opening Snare Shot in Rock History, neither acts are particularly notable for their drumming. If anything, they're both famous for their looseness!

Yeah I didn't grow up with the Beatles either, I was only really exposed to most music through playing it or the radio (and I never listened to classic rock radio or whatever).

I first consciously heard 'Heart of Gold' when the Bad Plus did it as a closer, and sang it acapella & off-mic at the end. I was probably the only person who was like 'huh, pretty good song, who wrote that?'.

Obviously I've heard a song here and there, but never a full album.

(Josh, which song are you referring to?)

Like a Rolling Stone.

#rockism

i do not mean to post more about bob dylan in this neil young thread but most of dylan's drummers are all-time, including matt chamberlain on the new one? kenneth buttrey! jim keltner!

i mean i guess mentioning kenneth buttrey is on-topic

yeah Levon Helm whatta hack 🙄

Oh, there are astounding drummers on Dylan (and Neil) records - Levon on "Revolution Blues" alone! - those records are just not particularly known for their drumming.

I never grew up with the Beatles, either. I've mentioned it before, but my parents only had one Beatles album and it was "Yellow Submarine." They had one Dylan album, and it was "Self-Portrait." And they had one Stones album, and it was "Goat's Head Soup" (which was missing the LP). One day I discovered a copy of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere," but it was on an 8-track reel-to-reel so I never heard it as a kid. Of this batch of quality acts, I listen to Neil Young the most by far. Followed by Dylan. Followed by the Stones, with the Beatles last, because in a lot of ways they are just a permanent part of the listening environment.

Keltner played with Neil too, he's great on Peace Trail

The bassline in 'Vacancy' reminds me of that one Radiohead song that has a similar bassline

i'm only now hearing this and goddamn if this isn't the neil young record i always kinda wanted

kind of Harvest but with the down and out druggie vibes of On the Beach?

oh, no wonder

First Dylan and Neil this week is cracking me up (no worries).

xps Punch-Up At A Wedding! I knew that bassline sounded familiar

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

it's all one song, iirc

Yes, Punch-Up At a Wedding! Just came here to post that after flipping through a ton of Radiohead songs to find that riff.

that's funny, "Vacancy" was also reminding me of a song, but I was thinking it was another Neil song.

― time is running out to pitch in $5 (Karl Malone), Friday, June 19, 2020 11:59 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

was it "are you ready for the country" ?

YES

thank you. i've had a busy day and haven't had a chance to search for it, but that's it.

The Vacancy riff reminded me of World on a String.

Listened a few times today and actually the record it reminds me most of is Time Fades Away in the way both are more like notebooks of roughs, demos, ideas, some complete, some only partially finished and it's surreal like TFA is, though obv sadder and gentler.

I was surprised by how Ditch-y and fucked up it is, hard for me to imagine this would have been any bigger a hit than Tonight or On the Beach or TFA

yeah it feels a little like another angle on tonight's the night to me mainly for the presence of things like "florida" and "we don't smoke it no more"

Yeah, I think if he had fleshed out "Love Is A Rose" with a full band + Emmylou on backing vocals or something, he might've had a hit like "Heart of Gold" ... but really, there's nothing else that would've been a single, I don't think. Even On The Beach had "Walk On" ...

by the way, just got my Homegrown LP in the mail ... what a day, what a year.

gonna be honest, the "yes it do" in separate ways sticks out to me in a way that's annoying

I’m not sure I can mentally handle a new neil 70s album so I’m just gonna give this some time

I was just imagining if Neil tried to have it both ways back in '75, and put Homegrown out as the front half of a double w/Tonight's The Night as disc two. He probably had the clout to pull it off, and it vaguely makes sense as the most extreme of the big doubles of the era (Exile, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Physical Graffiti, Quadrophenia etc.).

Ultimately, going forward like that isn't Neil's thing, but it would have been an interesting timeline if he had.

ugh, that would have been kind of amazing

also, it would have been a highly RELATABLE double album. he's had so many concept-adjacent albums over the years, but homegrown+TTN makes 100x more sense than something like quadrophenia

yeah kind of funny that neil *didn't* put out a double album (aside from the triple Decade comp) any time in the 1970s ... he was one of the few major artists who really had the material for it!

right, and also i feel like he would have been a perfect fit for the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

nowadays his versions of those tracks (looking for a leader 2020) really are kind of bad (imo), but in prime ditch trilogy-era, they were all gold (imo)

You're not counting Journey Through the Past, I assume?

I feel like Tonight's the Night is its own universe and would not benefit by being part of a double album

Haha not counting journey through the past

the kind of sprawling double-album that finds space for a few oddities/novelty tracks on it that are actually good, like a proto-pavement

That's actually a pretty accurate description of Journey, which has ample sprawl and at least one great oddity ("Soldier"). It is, though, almost 100% previous-released songs, if not versions, including, maybe weirdest of all, "Let's Go Away for Awhile" from Pet Sounds--not a cover, the actual track.

The Wikipedia on this record talks about it being "rebuilt" for release, and a large number of other songs being recorded in the sessions. So is Homegrown 2020 the same mix and running order that would have been released in 1975, or is it a modern-day reappraisal?

Unless there's an acetate or tape copy in his archives, I think it's impossible to know. Since a few tracks were included on later releases, it's very possible whatever master tape that was assembled for Homegrown was dismantled and never put back together (and perhaps taken apart song by song). If that happened, he could've lost track of certain songs and maybe even remixed particular songs since there was no real reason to keep the old mixes to an album that wasn't going to be released imminently.

Although I get the feeling Neil keeps everything (especially the master tape of an unreleased album), and they could have rebuilt the record to match as closely as possible to the original master.

RARE DITCH PROJECT